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| The most notorious accusation of plagiarism was that of ], an author of children's books published in the 1980s, who, in the late 1990s began to charge publicly that Rowling's books were based on her books, including ''The Legend of Rah and the Muggles'' and ''Larry Potter and His Best Friend Lilly''. Stouffer sued Rowling and ] in U.S. District Court, also naming ] as a party. Rowling, Scholastic and Warner Bros. sued Stouffer in New York, asking the court to judge that there was no infringement of Stouffer's ]s or ].<ref><span class="plainlinks"> . . ] ]. Accessed ] ]. </span></ref> Rowling and her co-litigants argued that much of the evidence that Stouffer presented was fraudulent, and asked for sanctions and attorneys' fees as punishment.<ref><span class="plainlinks"> . . ] ]. Accessed ] ]. </span></ref> In September 2002 the court found in Rowling's favour, stating that Stouffer had lied to the court and falsified and forged documents to support her case. Stouffer was fined US$50,000 and ordered to pay part (but not all) of the plaintiffs' costs.<ref><span class="plainlinks"> Reuters. . Accessed ] ]. </span></ref> In January 2004 it was reported that Stouffer's appeal against the judgement had been rejected. The appeals court agreed that Stouffer's claims were properly dismissed because "no reasonable juror could find a likelihood of confusion as to the source of the two parties' works".<ref name="hpana-nancy"><span class="plainlinks"> . .</span></ref> A report of the judgment (requires subscription) can be found at the Entertainment Law Digest<ref> {{cite web | author=2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 02-9405| title=Scholastic, Inc., J.K. Rowling and Time Warner Entertainment Company, L.P. v. Nancy Stouffer| url=http://www.entlawdigest.com/story.cfm?storyID=3094 | The most notorious accusation of plagiarism was that of ], an author of children's books published in the 1980s, who, in the late 1990s began to charge publicly that Rowling's books were based on her books, including ''The Legend of Rah and the Muggles'' and ''Larry Potter and His Best Friend Lilly''. Stouffer sued Rowling and ] in U.S. District Court, also naming ] as a party. Rowling, Scholastic and Warner Bros. sued Stouffer in New York, asking the court to judge that there was no infringement of Stouffer's ]s or ].<ref><span class="plainlinks"> . . ] ]. Accessed ] ]. </span></ref> Rowling and her co-litigants argued that much of the evidence that Stouffer presented was fraudulent, and asked for sanctions and attorneys' fees as punishment.<ref><span class="plainlinks"> . . ] ]. Accessed ] ]. </span></ref> In September 2002 the court found in Rowling's favour, stating that Stouffer had lied to the court and falsified and forged documents to support her case. Stouffer was fined US$50,000 and ordered to pay part (but not all) of the plaintiffs' costs.<ref><span class="plainlinks"> Reuters. . Accessed ] ]. </span></ref> In January 2004 it was reported that Stouffer's appeal against the judgement had been rejected. The appeals court agreed that Stouffer's claims were properly dismissed because "no reasonable juror could find a likelihood of confusion as to the source of the two parties' works".<ref name="hpana-nancy"><span class="plainlinks"> . .</span></ref> A report of the judgment (requires subscription) can be found at the Entertainment Law Digest<ref> {{cite web | author=2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 02-9405| title=Scholastic, Inc., J.K. Rowling and Time Warner Entertainment Company, L.P. v. Nancy Stouffer| url=http://www.entlawdigest.com/story.cfm?storyID=3094 | ||
| | accessdate=2006-10-11}} </ref>. The 2002 judgment can be found at . |
| accessdate=2006-10-11}} </ref>. The 2002 judgment can be found at . | ||
| ==References== | ==References== | ||
Revision as of 23:29, 27 May 2007
J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter books share a number of similarities with a wide range of literature, both classical and modern. This has led many to label the books as derivative, or even plagiarised. Others have claimed she is merely drawing upon ancient archetypes which have been used by many other authors in the past.
Acknowledged influences
While Rowling has never openly credited any single author with inspiration, she cites Jane Austen as her favourite author and a major influence. The Harry Potter series is known for its twist endings, and Rowling has stated that she feels Jane Austen to have constructed the greatest twist of all time in her novel Emma.
She has also claimed to have been a fan of the works of C. S. Lewis as a child, and cites the influence of his Narnia chronicles on her work: "I found myself thinking about the wardrobe route to Narnia when Harry is told he has to hurl himself at a barrier in Kings Cross Station - it dissolves and he's on platform Nine and Three-Quarters, and there's the train for Hogwarts."
She is, however, at pains to stress the differences between Narnia and her world: "Narnia is literally a different world," she says, "whereas in the Harry books you go into a world within a world that you can see if you happen to belong. A lot of the humour comes from collisions between the magic and the everyday worlds. Generally there isn't much humour in the Narnia books, although I adored them when I was a child. I got so caught up I didn't think CS Lewis was especially preachy. Reading them now I find that his subliminal message isn't very subliminal."
She frequently mentions E. Nesbit in interview, citing her "very real" child characters. Rowling has also claimed to have been a fan of Paul Gallico and of the story The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge. Another book she has named as a favorite is I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith.
Rowling also cites the work of T. H. White, a grammar school teacher, and the author of the well-known children's classic saga, The Once and Future King, which tells the story of King Arthur of Britain, from childhood to grave. Perhaps the best-known book from this saga is The Sword in the Stone (the first book) which was made into an animated movie by Disney Studios. The characters drawn in this saga have some interesting parallels with Harry Potter, his acquaintances, and the world he lives in. For example Arthur, (called Wart) is a small scruffy-haired orphan, who meets a tall, slim white-bearded magician in robes called Merlin (who has a talking owl, Archimedes) who takes him to a castle to educate him. The boy discovers he is actually quite famous. Rowling describes Wart as "Harry's spiritual ancestor."
Many of Rowling's named favorites decorate the links section of her personal webpage. The section is designed to look like a bookcase carrying titles such as: The Commitments and The Van by Roddy Doyle, I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith, books by Dorothy L. Sayers, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and Emma by Jane Austen, The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge, a book of fairy tales by E. Nesbit, Manx Mouse by Paul Gallico, and a book by Katherine Mansfield..
Cited works
There are a number of authors to which Rowling has been repeatedly compared in the media. Some of these she has herself mentioned, others have been mentioned by internet sites, journalists, critics or other authors. Order is roughly chronological.
Tom Brown's Schooldays
The Harry Potter series draws upon a long tradition of boarding school-set children's literature in English. This school story genre originated in the Victorian era with Tom Brown's Schooldays, by Thomas Hughes. Tom Brown's Schooldays laid down a basic structure which has been widely imitated, for example in Anthony Buckeridge's 1950s Jennings books.
Similarities between Tom Brown's Schooldays and Harry Potter are easy to identify. Both stories involve an average eleven-year old, better at sport than academic study, who is sent to boarding school. Upon arrival, the boy gains a best friend (In Tom's case, East, in Harry's case, Ron Weasley) who helps him adjust to the new environment. They are set upon by an arrogant bully — in Tom Brown's case, Flashman, in Harry's case Draco Malfoy. Stephen Fry, who both narrates the British audio adaptations of the Harry Potter novels and has starred in a screen adaptation of Tom Brown, has commented many times about the similarities between the two books. "Harry Potter - a boy who arrives in this strange school to board for the first time and makes good, solid friends and also enemies who use bullying and unfair tactics," notes Fry, "then is ambiguous about whether or not he is going to be good or bad. His pluck and his endeavour, loyalty, good nature and bravery are the things that carry him through - and that is the story of Tom Brown's Schooldays".
The Lord of the Rings
Fans of author JRR Tolkien have drawn attention to the similarities between his novel The Lord of the Rings and the Harry Potter series; specifically Tolkien's Wormtongue and Rowling's Wormtail, Tolkien's Shelob and Rowling's Aragog, Rowling's Dementors and Tolkien's Nazgûl, and similarities between both authors' antagonists, Tolkien's Dark Lord Sauron and Rowling's Lord Voldemort (both of whom are sometimes within their respective continuties unnamed due to intense fear surrounding their names). Rowling maintains that she hadn't read The Hobbit until after she completed the first Harry Potter novel (though she had read The Lord of the Rings as a teenager) and that any similarities between her books and Tolkien's are "fairly superficial". Tolkienian scholar Thomas Shippey has maintained that no "modern writer of epic fantasy has managed to escape the mark of Tolkien, no matter how hard many of them have tried".
Roald Dahl
Many have drawn attention to the similarities between Rowling's works and those of Roald Dahl, particularly in the depiction of the Dursley family, which echoes the nightmarish guardians seen in many of Dahl's books, such as the Wormwoods from Matilda, Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker from James and the Giant Peach, and Grandma from George's Marvelous Medicine. Rowling acknowledges that there are similarities, but believes that at a deeper level, her works are different than those of Dahl; in her words, more "moral."
The Dark is Rising
Susan Cooper's Dark is Rising sequence of stories (commenced with Over Sea, Under Stone in 1965 and now more commonly bound in a single volume) have been compared to the Harry Potter series. The sequence's second volume, also called The Dark is Rising, features a young boy named Will Stanton who, much like Harry Potter, discovers on his eleventh birthday that he is in fact embued with magical power; in Will's case, that he is the last of the Old Ones, beings empowered by the Light to battle the Dark. The books open in much the same way, with Will finding that people are telling him strange things and that animals run from him.
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A Wizard of Earthsea
The basic premise of Ursula K. Le Guin's A Wizard of Earthsea (1968), in which a boy with unusual aptitude for magic is recognised, and sent to a special school for wizards, resembles that of Harry Potter. The hero encounters Jasper, a typically unpleasant Draco-like rival, in the Flashman tradition. Le Guin has claimed that she doesn't feel Rowling "ripped her off," but that she felt that the books were overpraised for supposed originality, and that Rowling "could have been more gracious about her predecessors."
The Worst Witch
Many critics have noted that Jill Murphy's The Worst Witch series (first published in 1974), is set in a school for girls, "Miss Cackle's Academy of Witchcraft", remarkably reminiscent of Hogwarts. The school is hosted in an ancient castle on a remote hill surrounded by a forest. Classes include potions, chants and broomstick flying. Though the headmistress is kind and understanding, the hooknosed Potions mistress is harsh and unpleasant. She is particularly cruel towards the protagonist, a young witch named Mildred Hubble - but Mildred's nemesis is her pet student.
Charmed Life
In Diana Wynne Jones' Charmed Life (1977), two orphaned children receive magical education while living in a castle. The setting is a world resembling early 1900 Britain, where magic is commonplace. Jones' book Witch Week is set in a boarding school where many of the students turn out to be witches, in a world where witches are persecuted. Diana Wynne Jones has stated in answer to a question on her webpage: "I think Ms Rowling did get quite a few of her ideas from my books - though I have never met her, so I have never been able to ask her. My books were written many years before the Harry Potter books (Charmed Life was first published in 1977), so any similariities probably come from what she herself read as a child. Once a book is published, out in the world, it is sort of common property, for people to take ideas from and use, and I think this is what happened to my books."
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Discworld
Before the arrival of J. K. Rowling, Britain's bestselling author was comic fantasy writer Terry Pratchett. His Discworld books, beginning with The Colour of Magic in 1983, satirise and parody common fantasy literature conventions. The BBC and other British news agencies have emphasised a supposed rivalry between Pratchett and Rowling, but Pratchett has gone on record that, while he doesn't put Rowling on a pedestal, he doesn't consider her a bad writer, nor does he envy her success.. He has, however, criticised her for claiming that her works "subvert" the fantasy genre, pointing out that all fantasy post-Tolkien has adapted and subverted the genre to its own time and purpose.
Young Sherlock Holmes
The 1985 film Young Sherlock Holmes, scripted by Chris Columbus, also displays similarities to the Harry Potter series. The three leads bear a strong physical resemblance to the Harry, Ron and Hermione of Rowling's description (as does a character named Dudley to Draco Malfoy). They investigate a supernatural mystery in a Gothic boarding school, where staff include the Professor Flitwick-like Waxflatter, and sinister Rathe. Trophy-room duels, scars, a hooded Dementor-like apparition, Death Eater-style cultists, and ultimate sacrifice for love are other elements in common. The similarities contributed to Warner Bros. decision to employ Columbus as producer/director of the Potter movies, in preference to Terry Gilliam, Rowling's original choice. Scenes from Young Sherlock Holmes were subsequently used to cast the first Harry Potter film.
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Troll
The Charles Band-produced low-budget horror/fantasy film Troll, directed by John Carl Buechler and starring Noah Hathaway, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Sonny Bono, features a character named "Harry Potter Jr." In an interivew with MJ Simpson, Band claimed, "I've heard that JK Rowling has acknowledged that maybe she saw this low-budget movie and perhaps it inspired her." However, a search of Accio Quote, the largest searchable online archive of JK Rowling interviews, produces no evidence in support, and Rowling has said on record multiple times that the name "Harry Potter" was derived in part from a childhood friend, Ian Potter, and in part from her favourite male name, Harry.
The Books of Magic
Fans of the comic book series The Books of Magic, by Neil Gaiman (first published in 1990 by DC Comics) have cited similarities to the Harry Potter story. These include a dark-haired English boy with glasses, named Timothy Hunter, who on his eleventh birthday discovers his potential as the most powerful wizard of the age upon being approached by magic-wielding individuals, the first of whom makes him a gift of a pet owl. Similarities led the British tabloid paper the Daily Mirror to claim Gaiman had made accusations of plagiarism against Rowling, which he went on the record denying, saying the similarities were either coincidence, or drawn from the same fantasy archetypes. "I thought we were both just stealing from T.H. White", he said in interview, "very straightforward."
Wizard's Hall
In 1991, the author Jane Yolen released a book called Wizard's Hall, which bears resemblance to the Potter series and its characters. The main protagonist, Henry and not Harry (AKA Thornmallow), is a young boy who joins a magical school for young wizards. Yolen has been very critical of Rowling's work, and has complained publically that she believes she stole her ideas. In an interview with the magazine Newsweek, Yolen said that "I always tell people that if Ms. Rowling would like to cut me a very large check, I would cash it."
The Secret of Platform 13
Eva Ibbotson's The Secret of Platform 13 (first published in 1994) features a gateway to a magical world located on an underground railway platform. The protagonist belongs to the magical world but is raised in our world by a rich family who neglect him and treat him as a servant, while their fat and unpleasant biological son is pampered and spoiled. Amanda Craig is one example of a journalist who has written about the similarities: "Ibbotson would seem to have at least as good a case for claiming plagiarism as the American author currently suing J. K. Rowling , but unlike her, Ibbotson says she would "like to shake her by the hand. I think we all borrow from each other as writers."
Plagiarism accusation
The most notorious accusation of plagiarism was that of Nancy Stouffer, an author of children's books published in the 1980s, who, in the late 1990s began to charge publicly that Rowling's books were based on her books, including The Legend of Rah and the Muggles and Larry Potter and His Best Friend Lilly. Stouffer sued Rowling and Scholastic, Inc. in U.S. District Court, also naming Time Warner as a party. Rowling, Scholastic and Warner Bros. sued Stouffer in New York, asking the court to judge that there was no infringement of Stouffer's trademarks or copyright. Rowling and her co-litigants argued that much of the evidence that Stouffer presented was fraudulent, and asked for sanctions and attorneys' fees as punishment. In September 2002 the court found in Rowling's favour, stating that Stouffer had lied to the court and falsified and forged documents to support her case. Stouffer was fined US$50,000 and ordered to pay part (but not all) of the plaintiffs' costs. In January 2004 it was reported that Stouffer's appeal against the judgement had been rejected. The appeals court agreed that Stouffer's claims were properly dismissed because "no reasonable juror could find a likelihood of confusion as to the source of the two parties' works". A report of the judgment (requires subscription) can be found at the Entertainment Law Digest. The 2002 judgment can be found at eyrie.org.
References
- Boquet, Tim. "J.K. Rowling: The Wizard Behind Harry Potter". Reader's Digest. Retrieved 2006-10-10.
- ^ Renton, Jennie. ""The story behind the Potter legend: JK Rowling talks about how she created the Harry Potter books and the magic of Harry Potter's world"". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2006-10-10.
- JK Rowling. "JK Rowling at the Edinburgh Book Festival". Retrieved 2006-10-10.
- "Edinburgh "cub reporter" press conference". Retrieved 2006-10-10.
- Lindsey Fraser (2004). "J K Rowling at the Edinburgh Book Festival, Sunday, August 15, 2004". Retrieved 2007-05-10.
- "What Jo says about...Harry Potter". Accio Quote!. Retrieved 2007-05-10.
- "JK Rowling's Official Site". Retrieved 2007-06-10.
- Ian Wylie. "Stephen Fry's Schooldays". Manchester Evening News. Retrieved 2006-10-10.
- Monroe, Caroline. "How Much Was Rowling Inspired by Tolkien?". GreenBooks. TheOneRing.net. Retrieved 2006-05-21.
- "About the Books: transcript of J. K. Rowling's live interview on Scholastic.com". Scholastic.com. October 2000.
- Thomas, Shippey (2000). J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century. Harper Collins.
- Sally Blakeney (1998). "The Golden Fairytale". The Australian. Retrieved 2007-05-15.
- John Shirley (2001). "Review: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone". LocusOnline. Retrieved 2007-05-15.
- Feldman, Roxanne. "The Truth About Harry". School Library Journal. Retrieved 2006-10-10.
- Anne Pelrine. "The Christian Guide to Fantasy: The Dark is Rising". Retrieved 2007-05-17.
- "The Ottery: Rereading "The Dark is Rising"". Retrieved 2007-05-17.
- Ben Patrick Johnson (2001). "Rowling's Magic Spell: Two Parts Fantasy, One Part Familiar?". CultureKiosque. Retrieved 2007-05-16.
- "Novel Reflections: A Wizard of Earthsea". 2001. Retrieved 2007-05-16.
- Maya Jaggi. "The magician". Guardian Unlimited. Retrieved 2006-10-10.
- Polly Shulman (1999). "The Harry Potter series". slate.com.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|accesdate=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - David Aaronovitch (2003). "We've Been Muggled". The Observer. Retrieved 2007-05-10.
- Jonas Ramstein. "Harry Potter Similarities to Worst Witch, Accusations of Plagiarism, J RK Rowling Same as Worst Witch Some Say". Retrieved 2006-10-10.
- Wynn Jones, Diana. "DIANA'S ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS". Diana Wynne Jones: Official Site. Retrieved 2006-10-10.
- KAREN MCVEIGH and LESLEY WALKER (2002). "Pratchett casts a bitter spell on rivals". TheScotsman. Retrieved 2007-05-16.
- "Pratchett wins first major award". BBC News. 2002. Retrieved 2007-05-15.
- "Mystery lord of the Discworld". The Age. Retrieved 2006-10-10.
- "Pratchett takes swipe at Rowling". BBC News. Retrieved 2006-10-16.
- Brian Linder. "Trouble Brewing with Potter Casting?". Filmforce. Retrieved 2006-10-11.
- MJ Simpson. "Charles Band (Part 2)". Retrieved 2007-05-06.
{{cite web}}: Text "Charles Band (Part 2)" ignored (help) - Danielle Demetriou. "Harry Potter and the source of inspiration". Retrieved 2007-05-06.
- JK Rowling. "JK Rowling: Autobiography". Retrieved 2007-05-06.
- ""J.K. Rowling Discusses the Surprising Success of 'Harry Potter'," Larry King Live". 2000. Retrieved 2007-05-11.
- Linda Richards. "Interview: Neil Gaiman". January Magazine. Retrieved 2006-12-22.
- Stephen Richmond (2005). "Before there was Harry Potter, there was Thornmallow!". Retrieved 2006-10-27.
- Karen Springen (2005). "Writing Dynamo". Newsweek magazine. Retrieved 2007-05-16.
- Amanda Craig. "Eva Ibbotson". Retrieved 2006-10-11.
- BBC News. "Harry Potter books 'plagiarised'". 17 March 2000. Accessed 25 March 2006.
- Hogwarts Wire. "Stouffer ordered to pay 50k fine". 19 September 2002. Accessed 11 June 2006.
- Reuters. "Court throws out 'Muggles' claims against Rowling". Accessed 25 March 2006.
- The Harry Potter Automatic News Aggregator. "Nancy pay the costs of the appeal.
- 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 02-9405. "Scholastic, Inc., J.K. Rowling and Time Warner Entertainment Company, L.P. v. Nancy Stouffer". Retrieved 2006-10-11.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
Bibliography
- Pat Pincent, "The Education of a Wizard: Harry Potter and His Predecessors" in The Ivory Tower and Harry Potter: Perspectives in a Literary Phenomenon. Edited with an Introduction by Lana A. Whited. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2002.
- Amanda Craig, "Harry Potter and the art of lifting ideas", The Sunday Times, July 17, 2005.